Rachel Duncan
Partner
Rachel is a Partner in our Real Estate Team and has over 20 years’ experience in all aspects of high value commercial property work, having practised since 2002. In particular she specialises in all aspects of Landlord and Tenant commercial transactions alongside corporate-support property work, the acquisition, letting and disposal of investment properties and Collective Enfranchisement.
Joining Herrington Carmichael in September 2021, Rachel has previously acted for a wide range of national and international companies across all sectors dealing with all types of commercial property from huge pre-let industrial warehouses (she acted for tenant on the largest industrial letting in the UK of 2019) to offices and retail. She is experienced in advising foreign businesses setting up in the UK and has been particularly successful in helping clients that have historically used City-based law firms achieve better value for money.
Rachel works closely with surveyors and in-house legal and property teams in managing portfolios of properties for large corporate clients. Her experience is wide-ranging with many of her clients requiring active management of their extensive portfolios, often to tight deadlines. She is equally happy to advise either landlords or tenants on individual bespoke lettings for smaller companies and individuals.
Since 2021 Rachel has been part of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Editorial Advisory Group, advising on all commercial property legal aspects of the articles which are published by the RICS Property Journal.
In her spare time Rachel is a qualified mountaineer and also enjoys gardening, travelling, DIY and kicking a football around with her two sons and cockapoo.
- Heading up a team of lawyers working on a new pre-let Agreement for a major US retail company taking over 1.1 million square feet (with annual rent of over £7 million pa for 15-year term)
- Heading up a team acting for a global car rental brand in relation to their UK portfolio (as tenant) in England and Wales, with 60-100 individual transactions per year
- Acting for a national waste management company on their entire property portfolio – including a wide range of high value and ‘unusual’ transactions, from quarry and mineral leases, electric vehicle charging hubs and adverse possession claims to £ multi-million hydrogen production and waste disposal sites
- Acting on an industrial letting in Uxbridge valued at over £20m, with highly complex ‘Agreement for Lease’ and Lease provisions, alongside a Pre-Emption Agreement, collateral warranties and various other documents
- Acting for outdoor power equipment manufacturer in sale of HQ industrial premises for £13.5m
- Acting on a purchase of a large tranche of land at Colnbrook near Heathrow Airport (value £9m+ and including 7 separate freehold titles) by way of an Option
- Acting for UK focused logistics real estate investment, development and asset management client (as Landlord) in respect of an office letting in Farnborough, valued at £3m and involving 9 separate legal documents